BUCHAREST (Romania), September 24 (SeeNews) – Romanian Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea said on Thursday that the country’s draft budget for next year will be based on a deficit estimate of around 5.9% of gross domestic product (GDP), local news agency Mediafax reported.
The Finance Ministry has asked the other ministers to send in their own budget projections for next year so as to complete the budget draft, Mediafax (www.mediafax.ro) reported, quoting Pogea.
The Romanian government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had agreed earlier on a 6.0% budget deficit for 2010, the agency said.
Romania in August raised its budget deficit forecast for this year to 7.3% of GDP from 4.6% forecast earlier in the second budget revision so far this year to match the projections made in a 20 billion euro ($29.5 billion) aid agreement with the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank signed in late March.
The country’s consolidated budget deficit through August widened to a preliminary 4.4% of the GDP projected for the current year, preliminary Finance Ministry data showed.
($=0.6772 euro)